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People of influence: Billy Bowlegs

Published 9:56 p.m. ET Dec. 6, 2014

In 1852, Billy Bowlegs and other Seminole leaders were taken to New York and Washington in hopes of persuading them to leave Florida. Newspaper reports from the time make it clear Bowlegs was not impressed.(Photo: Hanson Family Archives/Special to The News-Press)

He was a 19th century Seminole chief whose name lives on in the 21st century.

His real name, according to blackpast.org, was Holata Micco. He was not the only man named Billy Bowlegs, but was a leader in the Second and Third Seminole Wars.

This can get confusing. There were three men known as Billy Bowlegs in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to a Florida International University biography.

The one of most interest here was the one born around 1810 and died in 1859.

He and other Seminoles were living in the area when they were provoked into war by Col. William Harney's surveying corps. It led to the Third Seminole War, 1855-58. Bowlegs and his followers surrendered on May 7, 1858 at what is now Billy's Creek. They were shipped to Oklahoma. Bowlegs died the following year.